Viet Nam exported $24.6 billion worth of goods to the US in the first five months of the year, making it the largest export market for Viet Nam. – Photo vietnambiz

The US was Viet Nam’s leading export market in the first five months of the year, despite a slight decrease in total export turnover.

Viet Nam's total export and import turnover in the first five months was US$196.84 billion, a 2.8 per cent drop year-on-year, according to the General Department of Statistics.

Total export turnover was $99.36 billion, a yearly drop of 1.7 per cent, while imports reached $97.48 billion, down 4 per cent year-on-year.

COVID-19 has affected Viet Nam’s main trading partners, hampering exports and imports, according to the department.

However, the US was Viet Nam’s largest export market in the period with export turnover of $24.6 billion, an 8.2 per cent increase compared to last year.

Last year, the US had one of the highest export growth rates compared to Viet Nam's other export markets, with a 29.1 per cent increase in export growth compared to 2018, accounting for 23.2 per cent of Viet Nam’s total exports.

Meanwhile, import turnover of fruits and vegetable from the US in the first four months was over $102.1 million, a 44 per cent increase from 2019, even though overall produce imports dropped by 42 per cent.

Vietnamese exports reached $16.3 billion in China, $8.1 billion in Japan, and $7.7 billion in South Korea.

In the five-month period, 17 product groups reached over $1 billion worth of export valuer each, including phones and components, electronics, garment and textiles, machinery, footwear, and vehicles.

Those with declining turnover were telephones and components (9 per cent), textiles (15 per cent), footwear (5 per cent), fruit and vegetables (10 per cent), rubber (30 per cent), and pepper (18 per cent). VNS